Looking for advice regarding newforging

Forging got revamped, speed rapiers are no longer a thing, hammer of forging is gone, and there are now smithing ranks. Essentially, tons of things have changed since the last time I actively played the game. I have a few questions:

1. Is there still any point in spending massive quantities of commodities and time to forge the best weapon possible (as with speed rapiers before the changes)?2. What weapon/armour is most cost effective for levelling up smithing ranks?3. Any other tips or things to keep in mind while picking up forging again? Any artifacts/traits/etc that helps out? Anything else?

Comments

All stats for weapons and armour have been standardized, so there's no more forging for certain stats now. Quality in forges has been shifted from item stats to aesthetic variables called 'descriptors'. You can do FORGING LIST to see what descriptors you have access to at your current rank.

Understandably, at Apprentice and Journeyman ranks they rather adequately give a visual representation of where you stand with your craft. As you forge, your Forging rank slowly rises, and with reaching new levels of forging experience, you unlock more unique descriptors.

Increasing your forging rank is done simply by forging items, and the most costly the forging is, the more it will attribute to your overall experience. For example, forging for a fullplate has a set commodity cost (can't recall what it is currently as am not in game), but this cost increases as you add a descriptor (or two) to it.

Forging costs can be checked by using FORGINGCOMMS (or FORGECOMMS, can't remember presently) <descriptor 1> <descriptor 2>. You don't have to use descriptors, and each one, depending on the type and Forging rank it associated with it, will scale the cost of the item accordingly.

There are currently no artefacts, as I currently know, aside from the portable anvil. If I recall, there was perhaps a Shop of Wonders item (or artefact) that was for a coal that never ran out when put in a forge, but I am unsure if this was removed.

It's pretty easy just to forge with regular coal, however, as the forge will typically stay like while you're actively using it. After a few seconds of unuse it will flicker out and extinguish.

1. There's almost no randomness in stats now, just a chance of 1-3 extra points for skilled forgers (help forging gives the specifics). So when making a weapon to use/sell (rather than forging just for experience), you usually only need to make one. With expensive descriptors though, one item could end up being more than 30 credits.

2. I haven't worked out the full details of smithing experience, but lances seem like the most efficient weapon. Not sure about armour. For mastering descriptors though, the weapon doesn't make that much difference.

3. No artefacts or traits, except portable anvils for more convenient forging and maybe a vault for holding more comms. Smelting is a lot worse now, only giving 10% back instead of 50%, and because it rounds down that means you won't get anything for cheaper weapons. Smithing is really popular, and a lot of people forge basically for free, so there's not much demand for more smiths right now. Other than that, I can't think of any advice that isn't covered in help forging.

Ahh. 'help forging' mentioned sizes of items as a factor when earning smithing experience. Figured weapons/armour with leather commodities would be cheaper at levelling up smithing ranks than for example something made entirely of steel or such. Thanks for all the helpful responses!

So. I did some very basic math and it looks the lance is by far the cheapest weapon in terms of commodities per size for weapons, and scalemails and leather armours gives you the most for levelling armour descriptors. I almost feel like they went completely overboard when they settled on these mechanics because not only do you need to forge one hundred (200 steel and 500 wood) lances to fully master a weapon descriptor, but then the descriptor's individual cost is multiplied with the weapon's size as well. So, I'm currently trying to master two descriptors at 'Blacksmith' rank, costing me a total of 3400 steel and 500 wood, which will earn me 4 points towards becoming (eventually) a Legendary Blacksmith. 3400 steel and 500 wood literally gives me 2% towards the end goal, which provides up to an additional of 3 points of stats on a forged item.

It just feels like a steep cost for the perks it provides.

If anyone have some tips as to which descriptors are better to use when working towards the Grandmaster and Legendary forging ranks, I'd really appreciate the advice.

It's designed as a long-term goal, yes, not quite something you'd accomplish in one sitting. I don't notice any significant difference with the 1 point difference, anyway, so I feel like it's a MacGuffin. Forge until you have the descriptors you find aesthetically appealing, and don't care about the rest.

-- Grounded in but one perspective, what we perceive is an exaggeration of the truth.